


Two Hundred Eighty-One and a Half Minutes at the Speed of Light

by stellacanta



Series: Sheith Unlimited 2k18 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 14:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14191173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: Sheith Unlimited Week Day 3 (3/21): Long Distance RelationshipIf they were separated by just distance, that was one thing. The wonders of the internet meant that Keith and Shiro could talk and chat as if they were right next to one another if it was just distance. They were also separated by time. Five hours worth of time to be exact.





	Two Hundred Eighty-One and a Half Minutes at the Speed of Light

When it was announced that Shiro would be the Kerberos mission, Keith was one of the first people to congratulate him. “Oh? It hasn’t been that long since they’ve announced whose going,” Shiro said in response to his congratulations. “Were you glued to the news the entire time waiting to hear who would be assigned? Were you hoping to get to pilot?”

“Don’t be silly,” Keith replied in a flat tone. “If anyone was going to be to the pilot, it would obviously be you. You’re the best pilot in the Garrison-“

“-hmm, I seem to remember a certain underclassman beating my sim time by two minutes though-“

“-and I wasn’t glued to the announcements board waiting for Kerberos assignments to come in. I just happened to see them when I was checking my sim results, and it seems like I haven’t been able to beat the score set by a certain pilot that was chosen for the Kerberos mission,” Keith finished without missing a beat. He gave Shiro a pointed look as his boyfriend just laughed in response. The conversation quickly turned to the topic of local places that they should visit one last time before Shiro had to leave for the mission.

Somehow, despite all the things they discussed, they never found the time to talk about what effect the mission would have on their relationship.

Keith knew that it took eight minutes for the light from the sun to reach Earth. The distances in space were so vast that light, the fastest thing in the universe, could take several minutes or even years to reach its destination in the eyes of someone who looked towards its source. To look at the night sky wasn’t to see the universe as it was now. The stars that Keith saw at night were so far away that he was seeing them as they were four years ago when the photons first set off on their journey through the universe. (Ten years ago, a hundred years ago, the distances were so vast that it made his head spin and made him feel so small and insignificant to its size in comparison. The idea of his comparative insignificance brought him comfort when he was younger, and tranquility now.)

On a whim one day, he looked up the distance it would take light from Earth to reach Pluto. The response was 4.69 light hours, or 281.5 light minutes. Keith stared at the response on the computer screen and closed his eyes as he tried to imagine what that would be like. Four, almost five hours, for his message to be sent to Shiro. Four, almost five hours, for the response from Shiro to get back to him. In total, it would be almost ten hours of waiting for a response, assuming that Shiro responded to his message immediately. Something that wasn’t guaranteed on a science mission where all the members of the team had duties assigned to him.

Keith opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. Ten hours of silence. Five hours towards the end where almost anything could happen, and Keith would never know. When the response from Shiro finally arrived at his terminal, he would be reading the words of the Shiro of five hours ago. Through a quirk of physics, they would be separated by both time and space when Shiro went out on the mission. Somehow, the vastness of space that had calmed him so many times before, only seem to frighten him now.

“Did you know that it takes five hours for light from Earth to reach Pluto,” he said one day to Shiro, apropos of nothing.

Shiro paused the game that they were playing and looked to Keith, concern evident in his eyes. “Well, yeah I knew that it would take a while for messages from Earth to reach Kerberos. Space is big and even in our relatively small solar system, messages don’t get sent and received instantaneously.” When Keith didn’t move, Shiro slid closer to him before pulling him into a tight hug.

“I’m scared,” Keith finally admitted after he buried his face into Shiro’s shoulders. It was a great honor for Shiro to be chosen to pilot the Kerberos mission, but suddenly Keith didn’t want him to leave.

“I’m not going to lie and say that I’m not worried about what might happen, Keith,” Shiro said after a long pause. “I’m scared, too. But I have a feeling that we’ll make it through this Keith. It’s going to be okay.” Keith could only hold onto Shiro tighter. A silent scream was muffled by Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro gulped and closed his eyes as he began to rock Keith back and forth. They game they were playing sat ignored in the background.


End file.
